Touring American opera company (1849?1878)
The
Max Maretzek Italian Opera Company
(sometimes referred to as the
Italian Opera Company
, the
Italian Grand Opera Company
, or
Academy of Music Opera Company
) was a touring American
opera
company that performed throughout the United States from 1849 to 1878.
[1]
The first major opera company in Manhattan and one of the first important companies in the United States, it had a long association with the
Academy of Music in New York City
where it presented an annual season of opera from 1854 until the company's demise in 1878.
[1]
There the company performed the United States premieres of
Rigoletto
,
Il trovatore
, and
La traviata
among other works.
The company also presented an annual season of opera at the
Academy of Music
in Philadelphia from 1857 to 1873, in addition to touring throughout the United States and to Cuba and Mexico. Musicologist George Whitney Martin described the company as the only opera company in the United States to perform with a full opera orchestra during the
Civil War
era and as "possibly the country's strongest" opera company in its day.
[2]
History
[
edit
]
The Max Maretzek Italian Opera Company was founded in 1849 by
impresario
Max Maretzek
, a Czech violinist and composer who had previously served as the chorus master and an assistant conductor at the
Royal Opera House
in London from 1844 to 1848, and had come to America in 1848 to become the music director of the
Astor Opera House
in New York City.
Dissatisfied with the singers at Astor, Maretzek went to Europe to create a second company of singers, initially to provide one season of operatic entertainment in 1849?1850 for performances in Boston and at the Astor Opera House. Maretzek described his hand picked group of European artists as vastly superior to the resident artists that were currently engaged at the Astor Opera House, and it was this group that ultimately became the Max Maretzek Italian Opera Company.
The group of singers was led by soprano
Teresa Parodi
, whom Maretzek selected in hopes of rivaling
P. T. Barnum
's prima donna, soprano
Jenny Lind
.
[6]
After the
Astor Place Riot
on May 10, 1849, Maretzek struck out on his own with his hand picked company.
[7]
The company initially tried to continue staging operas at the Astor Opera House, including the New York premiere of
Anna Bolena
on January 7, 1850 with soprano Apollonia Bertucca (Maretzek's future wife) in the title role.
However, bad feelings from the riot kept audiences away and the company moved to the
Castle Garden Theater
in the summer of 1850.
There the company notably staged the New York premieres of
Gaetano Donizetti
's
Marino Faliero
on June 17, 1851 and
Giuseppe Verdi
's
Luisa Miller
on July 20, 1854.
The company also began touring outside of New York in 1850 making stops at the
Chestnut Street Theatre
in Philadelphia, the
Holliday Street Theater
in Baltimore, and to theaters in Boston.
The company continued to tour throughout its history.
In 1851 Maretzek lost Parodi to his rival, Max Strakosch (brother of
Maurice Strakosch
). He counteracted by poaching several singers (including soprano
Angiolina Bosio
, bass
Ignazio Marini
, and tenor Domenico Lorini) from another rival,
Jaime Nuno
, whose Havana Italian Opera Troupe had just completed a season of work in Charleston, South Carolina and his singers were headed back to Europe without contracts. Maretzek purposefully cut short a scheduled tour to Boston for performances in Charleston and Augusta, Georgia in March and April 1851 for this purpose.
[6]
Also in 1851 the company had presented the New York premieres of Donizetti's
Parisina
and
Gemma di Vergy
, Rossini's
Semiramide
, von Weber's
Der Freischutz
, and the world premiere of
Maurice Strakosch
's
Giovanna Prima di Napoli
.
In 1852 the company toured for the first time to Mexico City where they performed the Mexico premiere of
I Lombardi alla prima crociata
. The company later returned to perform the Mexico premieres of
Attila
(1854) and
Nabucco
(1856).
On October 2, 1854 the Max Maretzek Italian Opera Company performed Bellini's
Norma
for the inauguration of the
Academy of Music in New York City
with
Giulia Grisi
in the title role and
Giuseppe Mario
as Pollione headlining the performance with Maretzek conducting.
This theater remained the principal base for the company when they were not touring until the group disbanded in 1878. The company notably presented three classic Verdi operas in their United States premieres at that house:
Rigoletto
(1855),
Il trovatore
(1855), and
La traviata
(1866).
[2]
The company also performed for the inauguration of the
Academy of Music in Philadelphia
on February 25, 1857, and presented an annual season of opera at that theater as well through 1873.
[18]
In 1855 Maretzek's company toured to
The Boston Theatre
to perform a season of opera which included the Boston premiere of
Rigoletto
on June 8, 1855. The company also performed that work for its San Francisco premiere in 1860.
The company returned to the Boston Theatre in 1863?1864 to perform another season of opera which included the Boston premieres of Verdi's
I due Foscari
and Gounod's
Faust
.
On September 24, 1856 the company performed the United States premiere of Meyerbeer's
L'etoile du nord
at the New York Academy of Music.
In 1868 Maretzek's company merged with rival touring company, the Max Strakosch Italian Opera Company.
[22]
Other notable artists who performed with the company include
Alessandro Amodio
,
Luigi Arditi
,
Cesare Badiali
,
Carl Bergmann
, Pauline Colson,
Marietta Gazzaniga
, Isabella Hinckley,
Clara Louise Kellogg
,
Salvatore Patti
[
it
;
de
]
,
Giorgio Ronconi
,
Lorenzo Salvi
,
Giorgio Stigelli, and
Minnie Hauk
.
[24]
References
[
edit
]
Sources
[
edit
]
- Bacon, Edwin M.
; Herndon, Richard, eds. (1896). "Marshall, Wyzeman".
Men of Progress: One Thousand Biographical Sketches and Portraits of Leaders in Business and Professional Life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
. New England Magazine. p.
156
– via
Internet Archive
.
Boston Theatre Max Maretzek.
- Brodsky Lawrence, Vera
(1995).
Strong on Music: The New York Music Scene in the Days of George Templeton
. University of Chicago Press.
ISBN
9780226470115
.
- Mathews, W. S. B. (1897).
Music: A Monthly Magazine, Devoted to the Art, Science, Technic and Literature of Music
. Vol. 12. pp. 612?613.
- Martin, George Whitney (2011).
Verdi in America: Oberto Through Rigoletto
. University Rochester Press.
ISBN
9781580463881
.
- Newman, Nancy (2010).
Good Music for a Free People: The Germania Musical Society in Nineteenth-century America
. University Rochester Press.
ISBN
9781580463454
.
- Preston, Katherine K. (2001).
Opera on the Road: Traveling Opera Troupes in the United States, 1825?60
. University of Illinois Press.
ISBN
9780252070020
.
- Schonberg, Harold C.
(November 23, 1969).
"Even the Prima Donna Blushed'
"
(PDF)
.
The New York Times
.
- Thompson, Oscar;
Slonimsky, Nicolas
(1956).
The International Cyclopedia of Music and Musicians
.
Dodd, Mead & Co.
- Wilson, Arthur Herman (1968).
A History of the Philadelphia Theatre, 1835 to 1855
. Greenwood Press.